UNLV baseball’s Fedde named preseason All-American

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The UNLV baseball team’s Friday night starter this season is one of the nation’s best, according to Baseball America.

The nationally respected magazine today included Rebel junior right-hander Erick Fedde on its Preseason All-America Second Team. It also ranked Fedde as the nation’s 17th best junior, regardless of position.

“It’s just an honor to be named with some of the best college baseball players in the country,” Fedde said in a statement.

A local product out of Las Vegas High, Fedde has a 13-8 career record in two seasons, including going 7-3 with a 3.92 earned run average last season. His 83 strikeouts in 2013 were fourth best in the Mountain West.

He became one of the nation’s elite players this summer, shining in the prestigious Cape Cod League and later with USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team. Fedde, who is projected to be a first-round pick in the MLB First-Year Player Entry Draft in June, went 3-1 and held a 2.34 ERA in five starts for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the Cape Cod League.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound Fedde has added about 30 pounds of muscle in his three years at UNLV, helping add velocity to his fastball. MLB.com projects him as the No. 22 overall pick.

“When we took this program over we had a vision and we recruited these local guys and told them they were going to be the group to turn this program around,” UNLV coach Tim Chambers said in a statement. “Fedde, along with our other guys, totally bought in. To see him grow from a kid who came in here throwing 85 miles per hour to now throwing 96 and getting opportunities to play in the Cape Cod League and to pitch for Team USA is just incredible. He, along with his classmates, have become the faces of our program and I couldn’t be happier.”